Consolations

Consolations
Author: David Whyte
Publisher: Canongate Books
Total Pages: 115
Release: 2019-11-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1786897644

In Consolations David Whyte unpacks aspects of being human that many of us spend our lives trying vainly to avoid - loss, heartbreak, vulnerability, fear - boldly reinterpreting them, fully embracing their complexity, never shying away from paradox in his relentless search for meaning. Beginning with 'Alone' and closing with 'Withdrawal', each piece in this life-affirming book is a meditation on meaning and context, an invitation to shift and broaden our perspectives on life: pain and joy, honesty and anger, confession and vulnerability, the experience of feeling overwhelmed and the desire to run away from it all. Through this lens, procrastination may be a necessary ripening; hiding an act of freedom; and shyness something that accompanies the first stage of revelation. Consolations invites readers into a poetic and thoughtful consideration of words whose meaning and interpretation influence the paths we choose and the way we traverse them throughout our lives.

Consolations

Consolations
Author: David Whyte
Publisher:
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2019-11-07
Genre: English language
ISBN: 9781786897633

David Whyte explores the underlying meaning of 52 ordinary words, with an introduction by Maria Popova of Brain Pickings and author of Figuring

Consolations

Consolations
Author: David Whyte
Publisher:
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2014-12
Genre: PHILOSOPHY
ISBN: 9781932887341

With the imagery of a poet and the reflection of a philosopher, David Whyte turns his attention to 52 ordinary words, each its own particular doorway into the underlying currents of human life. Beginning with Alone and closing with Work, each chapter is a meditation on meaning and context, an invitation to shift and broaden our perspectives on the inevitable vicissitudes of life: pain and joy, honesty and anger, confession and vulnerability, the experience of feeling besieged and the desire to run away from it all. Through this lens, procrastination may be a necessary ripening; hiding an act of freedom; and shyness the appropriate confusion and helplessness that accompanies the first stage of revelation. Consolations invites readers into a poetic and thoughtful consideration of words whose meaning and interpretation influence the paths we choose and the way we traverse them throughout our lives.

The Consolations of Mortality

The Consolations of Mortality
Author: Andrew Stark
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2016-08-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0300224702

For those who don’t believe in an afterlife, the wisdom of the ages offers four great consolations for mortality: that death is benign and good; that mortal life provides its own kind of immortality; that true immortality would be awful; and that we experience the kinds of losses in life that we will eventually face in death. Can any of these consolations honestly reconcile us to our inevitable demise? In this timely book, Andrew Stark tests the psychological truth of these consolations and searches our collective literary, philosophical, and cultural traditions for answers to the question of how we, in the twenty-first century, might accept our mortal condition. Ranging from Epicurus and Heidegger to bucket lists, the flaming out of rock stars, and the retiring of sports jerseys, Stark’s poignant and learned exploration shows how these consolations, taken together, reveal death as a blessing no matter how much we may love life.

On Consolation

On Consolation
Author: Michael Ignatieff
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2021-11-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1250810086

Timely and profound philosophical meditations on how great figures in history, literature, music, and art searched for solace while facing tragedies and crises, from the internationally renowned historian of ideas and Booker Prize finalist Michael Ignatieff When we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes—war, famine, pandemic—we go in search of consolation. Once the province of priests and philosophers, the language of consolation has largely vanished from our modern vocabulary, and the places where it was offered, houses of religion, are often empty. Rejecting the solace of ancient religious texts, humanity since the sixteenth century has increasingly placed its faith in science, ideology, and the therapeutic. How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of lapidary meditations on writers, artists, musicians, and their works—from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi—esteemed writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience. Recreating the moments when great figures found the courage to confront their fate and the determination to continue unafraid, On Consolation takes those stories into the present, movingly contending that we can revive these traditions of consolation to meet the anguish and uncertainties of our precarious twenty-first century.

The Consolations of Philosophy

The Consolations of Philosophy
Author: Alain De Botton
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2013-01-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 030783350X

From the author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, a delightful, truly consoling work that proves that philosophy can be a supreme source of help for our most painful everyday problems. Perhaps only Alain de Botton could uncover practical wisdom in the writings of some of the greatest thinkers of all time. But uncover he does, and the result is an unexpected book of both solace and humor. Dividing his work into six sections -- each highlighting a different psychic ailment and the appropriate philosopher -- de Botton offers consolation for unpopularity from Socrates, for not having enough money from Epicurus, for frustration from Seneca, for inadequacy from Montaigne, and for a broken heart from Schopenhauer (the darkest of thinkers and yet, paradoxically, the most cheering). Consolation for envy -- and, of course, the final word on consolation -- comes from Nietzsche: "Not everything which makes us feel better is good for us." This wonderfully engaging book will, however, make us feel better in a good way, with equal measures of wit and wisdom.

Consolations from a Stoic

Consolations from a Stoic
Author: Seneca
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2016-01-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1329864654

Seneca composed the Consolations while in exile on Corsica during 40-44 AD and used each opportunity to show off in writing his trendy Stoic ideas about life and the universe. His three letters of condolences De Consolatione ad Marciam, De Consolatione ad Polybium and De Consolatione ad Helviam caused a sensation in Rome when they were circulated and before long the disgraced aristocrat was recalled from banishment and given the plum appointment of tutor to the young future emperor Nero. In each work Seneca employs many of the rhetorical devices common to the consolatio tradition while incorporating his unique philosophy. His seemingly positive outlook on his own exile follows the Stoic principle that one should not be upset by uncontrollable events.

Greek and Roman Consolations

Greek and Roman Consolations
Author: H. Baltussen
Publisher: Classical Press of Wales
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2012-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1910589136

In the Ancient World death came - on average - at a far earlier age than in today's West, and without the authoritative warnings given by modern medicine. Consolation for the trauma of loss had, accordingly, a more prominent role to play. This volume presents eight original studies on consolatory writings from ancient Greek, Roman, early Christian and Arabic societies. The authors include internationally recognised authorities in the field. They offer insight into the ancient experience of loss and the methods used to palliate it. They explore how far there was a consolatory 'genre', involving letters, funerary oratory, epicedia, and philosophical prose. Focusing on responses to grief in numerous ancient authors, this volume finds elements of continuity and of individual variety in modes of consolation, and reveals instructive tensions between the commonplace and the personal.

The Overture of the Book of Consolations

The Overture of the Book of Consolations
Author: Peter Damian Akpunonu
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2004
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 9780820467788

An inspiration to writers, musicians, and mystics, The Overture of the Book of Consolations summarizes and highlights all the major themes of Deutero-Isaiah. Its predominant theme is consolation - consolation of Israel after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the depopulation of the kingdom of Judah. The Overture assures Judah that the past is forgiven and Yahweh is ushering in a New Creation, a future more glorious than the Exodus, the march through the desert, where Israel will once again be wedded to her husband: Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.